Excavator



H. R. STRAIGHT.

Patented Dec. 14, 1920.

3 $HEETSSHEET 1- H. R. STRAIGHT.

EXCAVATOR.

APPLICATION man MAR. 31. m9. 1,362,056, Patented Dec. 14,1920.

3 SHEETSSHEEI 3.

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HALVER R. STRAIGHT, OF ADEL, IOWA.

EXCAVATOR.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HALvnR It. STRAIGHT, a citizen of the United States,residing at Adel, in the county of Dallas, State of Iowa, have inventeda new and useful Excavator, of .which the following is thespecification.

This invention relatesto a new and improved excavator adapted to miningrock, shale, sulfur, oil shale, etc., and is especially adapted tomining oil shale.

Oil shale is a substance of a bituminous nature and will produce crudeoil and ammonia. sulfate by destructive distillation, large quantitiesof it has been found in the mountainous regions of certain parts of theUnited States in layers or veins from ten to fifteen feet in depth andin a good many cases above the valley floors. It may be mined bytunneling or drifting. Oil shale is hard and tenacious at atmospherictemperatures but becomes quite soft, rotten and volatile when heated toa temperature of three or four hundred degrees.

It has been customary heretofore to mine it by the pick and blasting,after which it is necessary to crush it by a special crusher beforesubmitting it to the distillation process. This causes a large amount ofvery fine material which is more or less objectionable. On account ofits viscous and elastic nature at normal temperature it is hard to drillwith an ordinary pneumatic drill, the drill having a tendency to bouncewithout materially cutting the shale. It does not blast readily, thecharge having a tendency to blow out rather than break and shatter. Whenthe chunks are blown off they are hard to break and handle.

An object of my invention is to provide an excavator of simple, durableand inexpensive construction, having few moving parts to loosen, wear orget out of order, and particularly to mining or excavating oil shale,sulfur, rock, shale, etc.

A further object is to provide in an excavator having a rotaryexcavating memher, a new and improved bucket designed to be rigidlyconnected to the said member.

A further object is to provide in an excavator having a rotary excavatormember,

improved means for carrying and rotating said member.

A. still further object is to provide in an excavator, an improvedrotary excavator member constructed with few moving parts and designedto have the cutters and buckets detachably but rigidly held in position.

Serial No. 286,565.

A further object is to provide an excavator having a rotary excavatormember, improved means for advancing and controlling the feed of theexcavator cutters.

I obtain these objects by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanyingdrawing in which:

Figure 1 shows a plan view of my excavator showing in dotted line, oneof its positions of movement.

Fig. 2 shows a transverse sectional view on line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 shows a central longitudinal sectional view.

Fig. a shows a transverse sectional view of the truck and the pivotframes, taken on the line 4% of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a detailed sectional view of one of the buckets showing themanner in which it is filled.

For mounting my excavator, I have provided a track 10, built in shortsections. The said track is designed to carry a truck 11 having an axle12 upon which are mounted wheels 13, only the front end of the truck 11being shown in the drawings. The back end of the truck 11 is designed tocarry elevator devices which are similar to those shown in a companionapplication filed. by me.

Mounted ahead of the track 10, I have provided a semi-circular track 14designed to rest on ties l5. Mounted on the front end of the truck, Ihave provided a cast frame 16 having a circular opening 17 at itscenter, the inner part of the frame 16 being provided with an annularflange 18.

Rotatively mounted on the upper edge of the flange 18, is a casting 19which is provided with an annular downwardly extending flange 20designed to exteno into and to fit the opening 17 of the frame 16. Onthe upper side of the casting 19 I have provided parallel grooves orrabbets 21 shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 3. The back side of the casting 19is provided with the projection 22 having a screw threaded opening 23.Above the casting 19, I have provided a rectangular casting 24: whichhas each end provided with a downwardly extending flange 25 designed toslidably rest upon the horizontal bases of the rabbets 21 of the casting19. ach end of the casting 24 is provided with an upwardly extendingslide bar 26 (Fig. l). The said casting 24 has an opening 27. On thebottom of the casting 24 and on the back side of each side is adownwardly and rearwardly extending lug 28. These lugs 28 are providedwith a rotatively mounted and screw threaded shaft 29, one end 'of whichis provided with a crank 30. r

I have provided for each end of the shaft 29, between the lugs 28, athrust collar 31. The said shaft 29 is designed to be rotatively mountedin the projection 22 of the casting 19.

It will be seen by this construction that when the shaft 29 is rotated,the casting 24 may be moved relatively to the casting 19. Extendingdiametrically through the center of the casting 24, I have provided ascrew threaded shaft 32. A shield 33 is mounted above the shaft 32 andis for the purpose of protecting the said shaft from dirt or grit.

For the sake of convenience, a shall call the casting 24, a slide frame;the casting 16, the first annular pivot frame; and the casting 19, thesecond annular pivot frame,

It will be seen from the drawings that the second annular pivot frame 19is rotatively mounted on the first annular pivot frame 16, the purposeof this will be more fully set forth. For mounting the excavator memberand its driving mechanism, I have provided a supporting frame consistingof longitudinal beams 34, 35, 36and 37 ,transverse beams 38, 39, 40 and41.

Mounted between the beams 38 and 39, I have provided longitudinal beams42. The under side of each of these beams is provided with an invertedchannel 43, which are designed to be slidably mounted upon the slidebars 26, as shown in Fig. 4.

From this construction it will be seen that the supporting frame isslidably mounted relative to the slide frame 24 and also pivotallymounted upon the truck 11 due to the pivotal relation between the firstand second annular pivot frames. For moving the supporting framerelative to the slide frame 24, I have provided a bracket 44 between thebeams 39 and 40 held in position by rivets or bolts 45 (Fig. Secured tothe underside of the bracket 44 is a reversible motor 46, having itsshaft in line with the shaft 32. Mounted on and between the bars 42,beneath the forward end is a bracket 47 designed to carry a speedreducing gear de vice 48. This device contains the proper speed reducinggears and is dust and oil proof. This speed reducer is a commercialdevice and can be purchased of gear manufacturers. It is thereforedeemed unnecessary to describe the details of construction.

The motor shaft and the driver shaft of the speed reducers, areconnected by the coupling 49. The driven shaft of the speed reducer 48,is connected with the front end of the shaft 32 by means of the coupling50, which also serves as a thrust bearing. The

opposite end of the shaft 32 is rotatively mounted in a bearing 51 onthe central under side face, of the beam 38. A thrust bearing 52 isprovided for the rear end of the shaft 32 and is designed to co-act withthe forward end of the bearing 51. If the motor 46 is rotated, the shaft32 will be rotated through the speed reducing mechanism 48. This willcause the slide frame 24 to move longitudinally relative to the channels43 of the supporting frame. If the motor is reversed, the slide frame 24will be moved in the opposite direction.

For swinging the front or free end of the supporting frame, I haveprovided angular arranged beams or supports 53, secured to the underside and near the ends of the beams 39, 40 and 41. Secured to each ofthe supports 53 are bearings 54. Between each set of bearings 54, I haveprovided a roller 55, having a shaft 55 rotatively mounted in thebearing 54. The rollers 55 are about three feet long and are designed totravel or roll on the circular track 14. The axes of the rollers 55 arein a horizontal plane and intersect at the pivot center of the pivotframes 16 and 19 as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1, when the saidframes are at their central position of movement relative to thesupporting frame, at which time the track 14 is so positioned as toengage the rollers at their central portion midway between their ends.The shaft 55 on the forward end of the right hand roller 55, is providedwith the sprocket 56. For rotating the said rollers 55, I have providedan angular arranged plate 57 on the right hand ends of the beams 39 and40 designed to carry a reversible motor 58 and the speed reducing gearmechanism 59. This mechanism is similar to the speed reducer 48 abovedescribed. Arrangement of these are clearly shown in Fig. 1.

The adjacent ends of the shafts of the motor 58 and the speed reducer 59are connected by the coupling 60. The driven shaft of the speed reduceris rotatively mounted in a bearing 61 and is provided with a sprocket62. A chain 63 operatively connects the sprockets 56 and 62. If themotor shaft is rotated, sprocket 62 will be rotated through the speedreducer 59 and in turn rotates sprocket 56 through the chain 63, whichwill in turn rotate the roller 55, the rotation of which will causethefree end of the supporting frame to move in a circular path about thepivot truck. If the rotation of the motor shaft is reversed, thedirection of the movement of the supporting frame will also be reversed.

For excavating and elevating the material I have provided the followingmechanism which I shall term as the rotary excavator member.

Mounted on the central portion of the beams 40 and 41, is a bearing 64,arranged with its axis in a horizontal plane and extendinglongitudinally with the supporting frame, the center of which wouldintersect the vertical center line of the pivot frames. Rotativelymounted in the bearing 64 is a shaft 65 having on its forward end a hub66. This hub 66 is provided with a flange 67.

I have provided a disk 68 having an opening 69 at its center, the saidopening being designed to pass over the end of the hub 66 so that thedisk 68 lies adjacent to the back side of the flange 67. The disk issecured in position by means of bolts 7 0. Secured to the back side ofthe disk 68 and at its periphery, I have provided an internal gear 71.This gear is built in sections and is secured to the disk by means ofbolts 72. The said gear is provided with the flange 73 in which thebolts 72 are mounted. The forward end of the hub 66 is provided with aflange portion 74 bracing the disk 68 against the rearward movement asthe excavator member is being operated.

I have provided spokes 7 5 having their inner ends connected with theflange 74 and their outer ends secured to the bolts 72. Bolted to theperiphery of the internal gear 71, I have provided a series of cutterholders 76 having a plate 77 designed to rest adjacent to the peripheryof the internal gear 71 and secured thereto by means of bolts 78. Theplate 77 is provided with an outwardly and. forwardly inclined arm 79,the said arm being provided with a recess 80. This recess 80 isrectangular in cross section and is designed to receive a cutter 81which is pointed at its outer end and secured in position in the recessby means of the set screw 82. The arm 79'is designed to be inclined inthe direction in which the internal gear is rotated.

For gathering the material and elevating it, I have provided buckets 83having an inclined bottom 84 and inwardly projecting lugs 85, a frontend 86, a top 87, a back end 88 and a back side 89 and front side 90.The front side 90 is provided with the opening 91 and the back end 88 isprovided with an opening 92. The lower edge of the end 88 is providedwith a hinge 93 designed to have a door 94 pivotally connectedtherewith. The lower end of the door 94 is provided with a roller 95. Aspring 96 is mounted on the hinge member 93 in such a manner as tonormally hold the door 94 in an open position. The lugs 85 are soconstructed as to extend down the front side of the disk 68 toward itscenter and are held in position by means of the bolts 72. It will thusbe seen I have provided an excavating member so constructed that if thecutter holders orbuckets should be broken they can easily be replacedand the internal gear 71 may also be easily replaced if it should becomebroken.

Secured to the forward end of the supporting frame, I have provided anannular track 97. as to engage the rollers when the door 94 is in itsclosed position, and is for the purpose of holding said doors closedagainst the action of the spring 96.

At the top portion of the track 97, I have provided a rearwardlyextending portion 98 and is for the purpose of permitting the doors 94to open, as clearly shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 3. Secured to the beam 41on each side of the bearing 64, I have provided vertical uprightsupports 98, the up per ends of which are provided with a pivotallymounted chute 99, the upper end of the chute 99 being provided with anenlarged portion 100, .which is tapering at its lower end to connectwith the upper end of the chute 99. Pivotally mounted to the forward endof the frame 24, I have provided a chute 101, the upper end of which istelescopically connected with the chute 99, as clearly shown in Fig. 3.

Mounted upon the left hand end of the members 39, 40 and 41, I haveprovided a plate 102 designed to carry a motor 103 and the speed reducer104. This speed reglucer is similar to those already described and hasits driving shaft in line with the shaft of the motor 103. These shaftsare connected by means of the coupling 105. The forward end of thedriven shaft of the speed reducer 104 is provided with a pinion gear 106and is arranged to be in mesh with the internal gear 71. By thisarrangement it will be seen that if the motor 103 is operated, thepinion 106 will be rotated in aclockwise direction, as shown in Fig. 2of the drawings. This will cause the internal gear 71 to be rotatedtogether with the cutter arms 79 and the buckets 83. The cutters willengage the material to be excavated, breaking and cutting it loose insmall chunks, a portion of which will fall in the buckets and theremainder will fall upon the floor. As the buckets 83 are elevated, theroller 95 will engage the track 97. When the said roller is advanced toa position where it will engage the rearwardly extending portion 98, thedoors 94 will be opened, thereby permitting any material that is withinthe bucket to slide out into the enlarged portion of the chute 99. Thiswill move downwardly and pass through the opening 20 in the pivotalsupporting members and fall upon the conveyer 107, the said conveyorbeing designed to rotate over a pulley 108. The opposite end of theconveyer 107 is not shown as above stated and is designed to communicatewith suitable conveyers for loading the material into cars. The plate109 is provided for directing ma- This track is of such a diameter Iterial into the opening 20. As the supporting frame is moved relative tothe slide frame 24L, the chute 101 will be moved relative to the chute99. As the buckets travel to a loweredposition they will engage thematerial loosened by the cutters. which will be slid in through theopening 91 and carried upwardly and dumped as above described.

While the rotary excavator member is being rotated, the shaft of themotor 58 will also be rotated, which will in turn rotate the sprocket62, the rollers 55 will be rotated through the chain 63 and thesprockets 56. The rotation of these rollers will cause the forward orfree end of the supporting frame to move in a circular path. This rotarymovement of the frame will be carried on until the longitudinal axis ofthe supporting frame is past the transverse center line ex tendingthrough the pivot centers or at right angles to the longitudinal linewith the track 10. hen the cutting or forward edge of the rotaryexcavator member is past the transverse line referred to a distanceequal to the diameter of the excavator member, the motor 58 will bereversed. This will cause the roller 55 to be reversed and the framestarted in the reverse direction. At this time it is necessary tooperate the crank 30,

which will cause the shaft 29 to be rotated and the supporting framemoved transversely relative to the slide frame 24. This will causetheright hand side of therotary excavator member, as shown in Fig. 1, todisengage the bank of the material being excavated and the left hand endof the excavator member to engage the said bank. This movement isrepresented in dotted lines in Fig. 1. When the supporting frame ismoved tothe left, the cutters will engage the material on an upwardmovement and when the supporting frame is being moved to the right, thesaid cutters will engage the material on the downward movement, it beingseen that the cutters will engage the bank at their lower position ofmovement and disengage it at their upper position of movement. Thetransverse movement of the supporting frame is for the purpose offreeing the idle cutters from the side of the bank so that they will nothave a dragging contact which would cause them to be worn out veryrapidly.

After the excavator member has been moved about the pivot centers of thepivot frame through an angle of approximately 180 degrees and at aposition at right angles to the longitudinal center of the track and atthe time that the motor 58 is reversed, the motor 46 will be operatedwhich will cause the shaft 82 to be rotated and the supporting frame tobe moved radially, which will cause the rollers 55 to be slid on thetrack 14. This movement is designed to be approximately an inch. Thiswill cause the cutters to be moved into the bank so that a new cut maybe made. lVhen the supporting frame has been moved outward to its limitof movement the motor et6 is reversed which will reverse the movement ofthe shaft 32, causing the truck 11 to be moved toward the excavatormember, until its opposite limit of movement is reached. v

Thus it will be seen that I have provided an excavator of comparativelysimple construction and having its gears and working parts inclosed soas not to gather the dust and its moving parts arranged in such a manneras to be accessible so that repairs may be easily made when it isnecessary. It will also be seen that the material will be cut in smallchunks of a comparatively uniform side and automatically gathered anddelivered to a point where it may be loaded into cars and carried to theretorts for distillation.

This is an important feature in machines of this kind due to the factthat the expense of gettingthe material out must be limited in orderthat the crude oil may be distilled commercially.

I claim:

1. In a device of the class described, a truck, an annular pivot framethereon, a second annular pivot frame on said first pivot frame, a slideframe on said second annular pivot frame, means for moving said slideframe relative to said second annular frame, a supporting frame havingone end slidably mounted on said slide frame, means for movin saidsupporting frame relative to said slide frame and at right angles to themovement thereof, means forv carrying the free end of said supportingframe in an alternate circular path, a rotary excavator on the free endof said supporting frame designed to rotate in a vertical planesubstantially tangent to the circular path, means for rotating saidexcavator member and telescopic means for delivering material fromthe'excavator member through said annular pivot member.

2. The combination of a truck, a circular track, a supporting framehaving one end pivotally and slidably mounted on said track, radiallyarranged rollers for carrying the free end of said supporting frame anddesigned to travel on said track, means for ro tating said rollers ineither direction to move the free end of said supporting frame in acircular path, a rotary excavator member on the free end of saidsupporting frame, designed to excavate, elevate, and discharge materialand to rotate in a plane substantially tangent to the said circularpath, means for driving said excavator and means for moving the slidingend of said supporting frame transversely in either direction.

3. The combination of a truck, a circular track, asupporting framehaving one end pivotally and slidably mounted on said track, radiallyarranged rollers for carrying the free end of said supporting frame anddesigned to travel on said track, means for rotating said rollers ineither direction to move the free end of said supporting frame in acircular path, a rotary excavator memher on the free end of saidsupporting frame, designed to excavate, elevate, and discharge materialand to rotate in a plane substantially'tangent to the said circularpath, means for driving said excavator, means for moving the sliding endof said supporting frame transversely in either direction and means formoving said supporting frame radially relative to said truck.

l. In a device of the class described, a truck, a supporting framehaving one end pivoted to said truck, means for carrying the other endin a circular path, a shaft arranged radially and horizontally on saidframe, a rotary member secured to the outer end of said shaft, means forrotating said member, detachable cutters for said member, bucketscapable of being filled tangentially and discharged transversely andmeans for receiving and delivering the discharged material to apredetermined point of discharge.

5. In a device of the class described, apivot truck, a supporting frameon said truck capable of pivotal and radial movement in a horizontalplane, an excavator member on said frame designed to rotate in avertical plane substantially perpendicular to the radial line ofmovement, means for rotating said excavator, means for moving said frameand excavator in an alternate semi-circular path and means forincreasing or diminishing the radius of said circular path.

6. In a device of the class described, a pivot truck, a supporting frameon said truck capable of pivotal and radial movement in a horizontalplane, an excavator member on said frame designed to rotate in avertical plane substantially perpendicular to the radial line ofmovement, means for changing the angle of the vertical plane of rotationrelative to the said line of radial movement, means for rotating saidexcavator, means for moving said frame and excavator in an alternatesemi-circular path and means for increasing or diminishing the radius ofsaid circular path.

7. In a device of the class described, a truck, an annular pivot framethereon, a second annular pivot frame on said first pivot frame, a slideframe on said second annular pivot frame, means for moving said slideframe relative to said second annular frame, a supporting frame havingone end slidably mounted on said slide frame, means for moving saidsupporting frame relative to said slide frame and at right angles to themovement thereof, means for carrying the free end of said suportingframe in an alternate semi-circular path, a rotary excavator on the freeend of said supporting frame designed to rotate in a vertical planesubstantially tangent to the semi-circular path and means for rotatingsaid excavator member.

8. In a device of the class described, a supporting frame, means formoving said frame alternately in a semi-circular path, an excavatorthereon, means for rotating said excavator in a vertical plane at anangle slightly inclined to a tangent to the semicircular pathwhen saidexcavator is moved in one direction and at a reverse angle when themovement of the excavator is reversed.

9. In a device of the class described, a supporting frame, means formoving said frame alternately in a semi-circular path, an excavatorthereon, means for rotating said excavator in a vertical plane at anangle slightly inclined to a tangent to the semicircular path When saidexcavator is moved in one direction and at a reverse angle when themovement of the excavator is reversed and means for increasing ordiminishing the radius of the said semi-circular path.

10. In a device of the class described, a supporting frame, means formoving said frame alternately in a semi-circular path, an excavatorthereon, means for rotating said excavator in a vertical plane at anangle slightly inclined to a tangent to the semi circular path when saidexcavator is moved in. one direction and at a reverse angle When themovement of the excavator is reversed, means for increasing ordiminishing the ra dius of the said semi-circular path and means forconveying the excavated material to a fixed point as the excavator isbeing 013* erated and from any of its operative positions. A

11. In a device of the class described, a truck, a supporting framehaving one end pivotally and slidably mounted thereon, means forimparting a radial movement to said supporting frame in eitherdirection, means for carrying the free end of said frame alternately ina semi-circular path, a rotary excavator member on the free end of saidsupporting frame, designed to excavate, elevate and discharge material,and to rotate in a plane substantially tangent to the semi-circularpath, means for driving said excavator member, means for moving theslidable end of said supporting frame transversely in either direction,means for conveying the discharged material from the excavator throughthe pivot center of said supporting frame and said truck.

HALVER R, STRAIGHT.

